Director General of Kosovo Customs Agron Llugaliu participated as a panelist at this year’s Tirana Connectivity Forum (TCF 2026), organized in cooperation with the CEFTA Secretariat.
This year’s forum, held under the theme “Engaged. Prepared. Connected.”, brought together senior regional decision-makers, representatives of the European Union, officials from the Government of Albania, businesses and experts to discuss advancing the Common Regional Market (CRM) and accelerating gradual integration into the EU Single Market.
Speaking on the panel, Director Llugaliu highlighted the crucial importance of innovation as a key driver of regional integration. In this context, he presented the success achieved by Kosovo Customs through the full implementation of the pre-arrival processing procedure a new and unique practice in the region that has delivered significant results in facilitating trade.
The procedure has reduced customs clearance times by up to 70%, generating substantial savings in time and costs for all actors involved in the foreign trade of the Republic of Kosovo. It has also enabled 24-hour processing for low-risk shipments, providing a strong boost and a direct impact on facilitating exports.
However, it was emphasized that unilateral success is not enough. To achieve tangible regional effects, reforms and the alignment of practices must be implemented across the entire region, taking advantage of the fact that all regional economies are working toward harmonization with European Union legislation.
At the end of the panel, Director Llugaliu stressed that the CEFTA Secretariat has made important progress in aligning practices and connecting data exchange systems. However, further work is needed to identify best practices and expand their application across the region in order to ensure equal treatment, predictability and harmonized standards.
The European Commission and other regional partners can support the efforts of the CEFTA Secretariat and its member economies toward this goal, as a prerequisite for successful regional and European integration.
